How to Set Up for a Stronger, Safer Deadlift

Two Tips for a Stronger Deadlift: Finding Your Starting Position & Driving Through the Floor

Your deadlift setup is either setting you up for a stronger pull—or sabotaging it before the bar even leaves the ground. If you’ve ever felt like your hips shoot up first, your back rounds forward off the floor, or you just can’t seem to find a position that feels strong and locked in, these two tips are going to change the way you approach the lift.

I’m Dr. Alyssa Olenick, PhD in exercise physiology and strength, running, and hybrid training coach. Today I have my partner in crime and co-coach at The Lyss Method, Corey Davis, and we’re walking you through our two favorite cues for a stronger starting position and a more powerful initial pull on the deadlift. Between the two of us, we’ve pulled 400 and 600 pounds respectively—and we didn’t get there by willy-nilly walking up to the bar. These little tweaks matter.

“Just walk up to the bar, bend over, and pick it up. The deadlift is simple—you don’t need to overthink the setup.”

🚨 MYTH BUSTED: The setup IS the deadlift. If you’re too loose, too far forward, or too far back before the bar leaves the floor, everything falls apart under load—and you leave pounds on the platform.

The biggest mistake we see in form feedback with clients is not having tension at the setup. People are too loose, and the moment there’s actual load—the moment they start lifting—everything gets pulled out of position. Then they’re actively thinking “I need to stand up,” and you see that big hip rise followed by a back-dominant finish instead of a smooth, strong pull. Let’s fix that.

Tip #1: How to Find Your Starting Position (The Roll Method)

This one is all about finding the bar position that’s uniquely strong for your body and anatomy—not someone else’s. Because if you’re taller, shorter, have longer femurs, shorter arms, or any other proportional difference from the person giving you deadlift tips on the internet, their exact setup might not work for you.

Here’s how to do it step by step:

Finding Your Deadlift Starting Position:

Step 1: Walk to the bar. Position yourself so the barbell is roughly over the laces of your shoes. Not at your shins (too close), not at your toes (too far). Over the laces is a simple visual target that gets most people in the right neighborhood.

Step 2: Hinge down and grip the bar. Get your hands in your preferred grip position.

Step 3: Roll the bar out, then roll it back in. This is the key move. Roll the bar slightly forward, then slowly roll it back toward you until you feel your lats, glutes, and hamstrings go taut—like you can feel the tension of the pull without actually pulling the bar off the ground.

Step 4: That’s your position. Where you feel that mutual tension through your lats, down into your glutes, and into your hamstrings—that’s where you’re strongest. That’s your starting position.

🔑 Key Point: The roll method helps you find a position where your upper body and lower body rise together. If the bar is too far forward, your back rises before your hips. If it’s too far back, your hips rise before your back. Neither of those is what we want. When the position is right, everything moves as one unit—and your knees naturally clear out of the bar path without you having to think about it.

This is so much more effective than generic setup advice because it accounts for your individual anatomy. Your femur length, arm length, torso proportions—the roll naturally finds the position that works for your body rather than relying on cues designed for someone built differently than you.

Tip #2: Pull the Slack Out & Drive the Floor Away

Once you’ve found your strong starting position using the roll method, the next step is how you actually initiate the pull. And here’s the mindset shift that changes everything: the deadlift isn’t a lift. It’s a push.

How to Pull the Slack Out of the Bar:

Flex your triceps. Get your arms as long as possible. This does two things: it puts you in the strongest pulling position with maximum arm length, and it prevents you from bending your elbows and straining your biceps during the pull.

Engage upward until you hear the click. That clicking sound is the barbell moving from the bottom of the weight plate hole to the top. You’re taking up all the slack in the system before you actually move the weight. Once you hear or feel that click, there’s no slack left in the chain.

Pull your shoulder blades back and down. Think about squeezing oranges in your armpits—elbows driving into your sides, lats fully engaged. This locks your upper body into a solid, stable position.

Now here’s the most important part—the actual initiation off the floor:

Don’t think “stand up with the bar.” Think “push the floor away.” Use your quads to drive the ground away from you to initiate the movement off the floor.

This is a huge difference. When you think about standing up, you tend to use your hips and back to initiate—which is exactly what causes that hip-shoot pattern where your butt rises first and then your back plays catch-up. When you think about pushing the floor away with your quads, your quads do the initial work of breaking the bar off the ground, and then your hips drive through to lock it out.

🔑 Key Point: Think of it like a string running through your body pulling you straight—almost like one of those bobbing head toys where the string pulls taut and everything rises together. You’re not lifting the weight off the floor with your upper body. You’re driving force through your legs into the ground, and that force is what moves the bar. Lock into your strong position, drive the floor away with your quads, then drive your hips into the bar to lock it out.

How These Two Tips Work Together

These aren’t two separate tricks—they’re a complete system for a stronger pull. When you combine the roll method with pulling the slack out and driving through the floor, the full sequence looks like this:

The Complete Deadlift Setup Sequence:

1. Walk to the bar — barbell over the laces of your shoes.

2. Hinge down and grip — get your hands set in your preferred position.

3. Roll out, roll back in — find where your lats, glutes, and hamstrings feel taut and tight.

4. Flex your triceps — get your arms long, no slack in the elbows.

5. Pull the slack out — engage upward until you hear or feel the barbell click to the top of the plate.

6. Shoulder blades back and down — squeeze those oranges in your armpits. Lock in.

7. Drive the floor away — push through your quads to break the bar off the ground.

8. Drive hips through — finish the lockout by driving your hips into the bar.

Perceptual Cues: What You Should Feel

If you don’t have a coach standing over you calling out “lats, hamstrings, glutes, pull,” here are some things you can feel for yourself to know your setup is dialed:

🔑 Key Point: What to Feel For

You should feel: Mutual tension from your lats down through your glutes and into your hamstrings. Everything taut, everything engaged, everything connected. Your upper and lower body should feel like one locked-in unit.

Red flags: If you feel too lax, your shoulders are rolling forward, you don’t feel that taut sensation in your back, or you can’t feel tension in your hamstrings and glutes—you’re not in the right position. Roll again, re-engage, and find that tightness before you pull.

These little details are what separate people who deadlift heavy and stay healthy from people who plateau or get hurt. We didn’t pull 400 and 600 pounds by skipping the setup—and you won’t hit your lifetime PRs by skipping it either.

⬇ THE BOTTOM LINE

A stronger deadlift starts before the bar leaves the floor. Use the roll method to find a starting position that matches your unique anatomy—not someone else’s. Pull the slack out of the bar, lock in your lats and shoulder blades, and think “push the floor away” instead of “stand up.” When your setup is tight and your initiation is through your quads, everything rises together and you move more weight. Period.

✅ YOUR ACTION PLAN:

1. Start with the bar over your laces. Simple visual cue to get in the right ballpark every time.

2. Roll out, roll back in. Find where you feel taut through lats, glutes, and hamstrings—that’s your strongest position.

3. Flex your triceps and get your arms long. No bent elbows, no slack in the chain.

4. Pull the slack out until you hear the click. Engage before you pull. The bar should already be tight against the top of the plate before it leaves the floor.

5. Squeeze oranges in your armpits. Shoulder blades back and down, lats fully locked in.

6. Push the floor away. Initiate with your quads, not your back. Drive the ground away from you, then drive your hips through to lock out.

7. Check your cues. Feel for mutual tension from lats to glutes to hamstrings. If something feels lax, re-engage before you pull.

🏋 Want Coaching That Programs This for You?

The Lyss Method is a science-based training program with lifting and running programs designed by Dr. Alyssa Olenick, Coach Corey Davis, and the TLM coaching team. Whether you’re chasing deadlift PRs, building strength, or training hybrid—we’ve got a program for you.

Check Out The Lyss Method →

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Hey, I'm Lyss!

I’m Exercise Physiologist, sports nutritionist, weight lifter, and ultra runner. I am here to bring science to your training in a no-nonsense way. I have helped thousands of women crush big lifting goals, cross race finish lines, and even do both. I’m here to help you do the same!

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